ASHOK B SHARMA
NEW DELHI: India has decided to reopen its diplomatic mission in Malawi as the two countries agreed to negotiate an Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement and a Treaty on Avoidance of Double Taxation.
At present the Indian High Commissioner posted in Zambia takes care of diplomatic relations with Malawi as an additional duty.
Malawi is strategically important to India as it now the chair of the African Union and an active member of the African economic groupings like COMESA, SADC. Malwai is one of the African countries to support India’s candidature for a permanent and non-permanent seat in the UN Security Council.
The country with rich deposits of natural resources like Malawi can be an attractive destination for Indian investment. It has rich deposits of uranium and platinum which can help India’s civil nuclear programme. Malawi’s rich deposit of phosphate can attract Indian ivestors to set up phosphatic fertiliser plants with buyback arrangements for exports to India.
The visiting Malawi President, Ngwazi Prof. Bingu wa Mutharika met the Indian Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh and discussed bilateral issues. It was agreed to raise the bilateral trade from $ 185 million to $ 300 million in the next three years.
Malawi has urged for rectifying the balance of tradewhich is tilted more in favour of India. India has assured to help. Malawi has joined the Duty Free Tariff Preference Scheme announced during the first India Africa Forum Summit in April 2008 and it already has a positive impact on the increase of Malawi’s export to India.
India extended a $ 100 million line of credit to Malawi for building infrastructure and a $ 5 million assistance for SME incubator.
In 2008, India had extended a line of credit of $ 30 million to Malawi which was used for irrigation, grain storage, tobacco threshing and one-village-one-product projects. A line of credit of $ 50 million was announced during the visit of the Indian Vice President Hamid Ansari in January, 2010. Malawi has sent proposals for utilisation of the line of credit for projects dealing with setting up of cotton ginning & spinning facilities; green belt initiative; and one village one product programme.
The Pan-African e-Network Project has been implemented in Malawi and is an important aspect of capacity building and support to the education and health sectors. Malawi is also a beneficiary of the new scholarship schemes offered to the African countries in the areas of agricultural sciences and scientific research.
At reception accorded to the visiting Malawi President jointly by the three apex industry bodies, the Union minister of state for IT and communications, Sachin Pilot said that an Indian team will soon visit Malawi to study the feasibility of power generation in that country. He said that Indian companies would be interested to invest in mining and services sector.
President Mutharika invited Indian investment in agriculture, pharma, food processing, tourism, mining, energy, infrastructure, machine tools, transport, coal, micro, small and medium enterprises, humam resources development besides cooperation in science and technology and education.
He said that recent exploration has shown that the country has rich deposits of uranium, platinum, gold, ruby, phosphate, granite, limestone, diamond and other rare resources. He said that Indian investors would be interested in mining such deposits.
President Mutharika invited Indian investment in the Green Belt Initiative and Shire Zambezi Waterway and Nsanje Inland Water Free Port. “We need tractors, pumps, trucks, factories for agro-processing, particularly for cotton and tobacco, wheat and pigeonpea. Indian investors can invest in agriculture and pigeonpea can be exported to India,” he said.
He also invited Indian investment for setting up hospitals, schools, warehouses and developing the transport sector, upgrading railways and augmenting tourism. He said that crocodile farming can prove to be prospective as its meat can be used for food and the skin for making different products.
On the energy sector, he invited Indian investment in wind and solar energy, hydro-power generation, geothermal energy, production of jatropha oil and ethanol.